Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 Hi Tinman, I'm not sure if we can consider it discrimination as much as dismissal. I think many endos, especially those of the old school, see our complaints as petty and us as not really sick. I've had endos who told me Graves' patients didn't need to see endos. I've been told that all GD patients are big complainers and after they have RAI they blame every little thing on it.....duh, having had RAI, I can see why. But they don't. Mention depression or weight gain after being iatrogenically rendered hypothyroid and they lift their brows and blame us. Most every thyroid medical textbook I've read mentions how frequently doctors encounter female patients who ask for extra thyroid hormone to lose weight--it's a medical propogated stereotype. Even Dr. Arem in Thyroid Solution mentions this. It's unfortunate that the number of doctors who truly understand how the thyroid functions are so rare. Here, I think word of mouth helps. Shomon's doctor list is a great starting place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 Hi Tinman, I'm not sure if we can consider it discrimination as much as dismissal. I think many endos, especially those of the old school, see our complaints as petty and us as not really sick. I've had endos who told me Graves' patients didn't need to see endos. I've been told that all GD patients are big complainers and after they have RAI they blame every little thing on it.....duh, having had RAI, I can see why. But they don't. Mention depression or weight gain after being iatrogenically rendered hypothyroid and they lift their brows and blame us. Most every thyroid medical textbook I've read mentions how frequently doctors encounter female patients who ask for extra thyroid hormone to lose weight--it's a medical propogated stereotype. Even Dr. Arem in Thyroid Solution mentions this. It's unfortunate that the number of doctors who truly understand how the thyroid functions are so rare. Here, I think word of mouth helps. Shomon's doctor list is a great starting place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 As thyroid > problems occur most often in woman, and most endo's are male, I > suspect a certain amount of paternalism, nay chauvinism is involved > here. OF COURSE!! Even if the endo's a woman--we all internalize various myths about gender and race, regardless of where we fall in those categories. For anyone interested in these issues, an excellent historical perspective is available in Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English's classic For Her Own Good: 150 Years of Experts Advice to Women. Feminist scholars have done an incredible amount of research on woman as patient. If anyone's interested, I can sum up some of this and my own perspective (my doctorate is in English and FEminist studies with my specialty on how anorexics have been constructed as patients--I treat psychiatric theories as narratives to unpack, just like one would a novel) on how these issues continue to shape women as thyroid patients. It will be interesting to see if this particular health problem turns into an area of feminist study (like childbirth did, thus helping to begin de-medicalize birth in the past decade) either now or in the more distant future. Anyway, gender is, in my opinion, certainly part of the picture here. B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 As thyroid > problems occur most often in woman, and most endo's are male, I > suspect a certain amount of paternalism, nay chauvinism is involved > here. OF COURSE!! Even if the endo's a woman--we all internalize various myths about gender and race, regardless of where we fall in those categories. For anyone interested in these issues, an excellent historical perspective is available in Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English's classic For Her Own Good: 150 Years of Experts Advice to Women. Feminist scholars have done an incredible amount of research on woman as patient. If anyone's interested, I can sum up some of this and my own perspective (my doctorate is in English and FEminist studies with my specialty on how anorexics have been constructed as patients--I treat psychiatric theories as narratives to unpack, just like one would a novel) on how these issues continue to shape women as thyroid patients. It will be interesting to see if this particular health problem turns into an area of feminist study (like childbirth did, thus helping to begin de-medicalize birth in the past decade) either now or in the more distant future. Anyway, gender is, in my opinion, certainly part of the picture here. B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 14, 2001 Report Share Posted March 14, 2001 , I would be very interested in your summation. Jody _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2001 Report Share Posted March 15, 2001 count me in on that too....I would love to hear (read) your thoughts! Randi Jody Spitale wrote: > , > I would be very interested in your summation. > Jody > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > > ------------------------------------- > The Graves' list is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace expert medical care. > Please consult your doctor before changing or trying new treatments. > ---------------------------------------- > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2001 Report Share Posted March 15, 2001 count me in on that too....I would love to hear (read) your thoughts! Randi Jody Spitale wrote: > , > I would be very interested in your summation. > Jody > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > > ------------------------------------- > The Graves' list is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace expert medical care. > Please consult your doctor before changing or trying new treatments. > ---------------------------------------- > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 15, 2001 Report Share Posted March 15, 2001 Elaine, A comment about something you said here... >>>Mention depression or weight gain after being iatrogenically rendered >>>hypothyroid and they lift their brows and blame us. Most every thyroid >>>medical textbook I've read mentions how frequently doctors encounter >>>female patients who ask for extra thyroid hormone to lose weight--it's a >>>medical propogated stereotype.<<<< The one male endo I have seen told me when I complained about the hair loss and the weight gain that those were " vanity issues " and something I should not be complaining about...so he put me on prozac to *lose* weight! I didn't stay on it longer than 6 weeks, I couldn't stand how it made me feel. Another thing, my little sister was seeing a dr. who perscribed thyroid hormone for her as diet pills without EVER having even a TSH done on her...she was on them, in increasing dosages for over 10 years. She is now in another state, the dr. that perscribed them is no longer practicing and the new dr. ran tests on her and refuses to perscribe them, since she shows no signs of thyroid disease. So it does happen Jody _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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